THERESA’S LAST STAND
May delays Brexit AGAIN and kills off No Deal ++ Boris leads Tory fury as Corbyn invited to ‘compromise’ talks ++ Seven-hour Cabinet told ‘national unity’ trumps party
BRITAIN was heading for a soft Brexit last night after Theresa May appealed to Jeremy Corbyn to help ‘break the logjam’ in Parliament.
In a dramatic gamble that enraged Tory Eurosceptics, she offered to drop her red lines and strike a compromise with the Labour leader in the interests of ‘national unity’.
At a fractious seven-hour Cabinet meeting the Prime Minister is said to have rejected calls from up to 14 senior colleagues for a No Deal Brexit.
Mrs May’s surprise move could see her agree to Labour’s demands for a customs union and guarantees on workers’ rights, health and safety and the environment even after Britain has left the European Union. The idea of a second referendum was also not ruled out by No 10.
Mr Corbyn last night welcomed Mrs May’s offer, saying: ‘I’m very happy to meet the Prime Minister. I don’t want to set any limits, one way or the other, ahead of those meetings.’
But senior Tories now fear their party could be on the verge of a split that could bring down the Government. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson rounded on the PM during the Cabinet meeting, telling her: ‘Our whole strategy is that Corbyn is completely unfit to govern.
‘But when we’re dealing with the biggest issue facing the country we’re now asking him to help. It’s
completely ridiculous.’ Boris Johnson accused Mrs May of betrayal, saying: ‘it now seems all too likely that British trade policy and key law making powers will be handed over to Brussels – with no say for the UK.’
Another leading tory Brexiteer, Jacob rees-Mogg, said: ‘What was announced today was an attempt to overturn Brexit in an attempt to do a deal with the socialists. it’s very serious.’
Former party leader iain Duncan Smith said: ‘For us to reach out to a Marxist, one of the most politically dangerous and incompetent politicians in Britain, will legitimise corbyn.’
Downing Street was last night on red alert for cabinet resignations, with Andrea leadsom, liam Fox and liz truss all opposed to letting labour dictate the terms of a soft Brexit.
in a free vote on Monday night, just 37 conservative MPs backed a customs union, compared with 236 against.
But Mrs May was backed by the Brexiteer environment Secretary Michael Gove who said it was right to ‘ensure that we do everything we can across the House of commons in order to leave the european Union at the earliest possible opportunity’.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told the Mail after the cabinet meeting: ‘the biggest priority for everyone sitting round the cabinet table was to make sure we deliver Brexit and do so
‘No choice but to speak to Labour’
fast. that means we have to be creative but also totally determined.’
Mr Gove and the Attorney General Geoffrey cox are said to have made ‘pivotal’ interventions at yesterday’s meeting, arguing that refusal of tory eurosceptics to back the PM’s deal meant she had no choice but to speak to labour. One cabinet source said: ‘cox and Gove changed the weather.’
On yet another extraordinary day at Westminster:
Former Brexit Secretary David Davis said 20 hardline leavers, dubbed the ‘Spartans’, were ready to vote with labour in the commons to bring down the Government;
the Prime Minister set a new target date to get Britain out of the EU by May 22;
Ministers ruled out calling a snap election after party chiefs warned it would be a huge gamble that could put Mr corbyn in Downing Street;
Government sources said preparations would be made to hold european Parliament elections on May 23, but said they could be cancelled as late as the day before if Britain left the EU in time;
Sources said the majority of cabinet ministers were against working with Mr corbyn, with 14 said to have argued for the UK to leave without a deal.
Opening yesterday’s meeting, Mrs May said no Deal posed an unacceptable risk to the Union, telling them: ‘i don’t want to be the last Prime Minister of Great Britain and northern ireland.’
in a televised statement last night, the PM said that, with just ten days until Britain is due to leave the EU, it was time to break the deadlock in Parliament. ‘Passions are running high on all sides of the argument,’ she said. ‘But we can and must find the compromises that will deliver what the British people voted for.
‘this is a decisive moment in the story of these islands. And it requires national unity to deliver the national interest.’
talks with Mr corbyn, who was given no advance warning of Mrs May’s decision, could begin as early as today.
the PM said she hoped to agree a ‘ single, unified approach’ with the labour leader before she travels to Brussels on April 10 to request another Brexit delay.
if the talks with labour fail, Mrs May said the Government would put a number of options to MPs next week in the hope of finding a consensus.
She said the Government would abide by whatever Parliament decided, although no 10 later said this did not include revoking Article 50.
earlier, no 10 said the PM remained opposed to a second referendum ‘ in all circumstances’. But a senior source refused to rule it out last night.
Mrs May’s DUP governing partners last night rounded on her ‘lamentable handling of the negotiations’.
the party said: ‘it remains to be seen if sub-contracting out the future of Brexit to Jeremy corbyn, someone whom the conservatives have demonised for four years, will end happily.’
IN the end, it was a selfless act of statesmanship. When push came to shove, Theresa May put the country’s interests over the partisan concerns of the Tory Party.
An easy decision? Undoubtedly not. But the Prime Minister, whose political career has been defined by duty, irrespective of personal cost, chose the difficult path in a bid to break the torturous Brexit logjam.
For the second time in a fortnight, she stood at a podium in Downing Street and addressed an exhausted and long-suffering public.
For nearly three years, she has worked tirelessly in the face of petty carping and criticism to implement the explicit mandate voters gave to the political class: to steer the UK safely out of the EU.
But our elected representatives have been unable to meet the task.
Instead of rolling up their sleeves and getting on with the job, they have postured and preened and played arcane Parliamentary games. Talk about sticking two fingers up at the 17.4million Leave voters!
So last night, following a mammoth sevenhour Cabinet meeting, Mrs May sought to break the impasse.
Standing at the lectern at No 10, she said: ‘This is a decisive moment in the story of these islands and it will require national unity to deliver the national interest.’ Warned that No Deal would harm the economy and security and risked the break-up of the union, she ruled it out.
Instead, taking an enormous gamble, she announced another Brexit delay, offered to drop her red lines and extended an olive branch to Jeremy Corbyn.
Many Tory MPs – and readers – will be furious, finding it repellent that the Labour leader, more at home with Britain’s enemies than friends, will help decide our future. And who can blame them?
If the irascible Marxist somehow finds it within himself to compromise and agree a deal, Britain will leave the EU – but with a much softer Brexit than hardliners demanded, most likely a customs union. It could lead to ministerial resignations and tear the party asunder.
However, this ignores a glaring truth. Mrs May already had a deal with Brussels. Not perfect, granted, but one that respected the referendum, took back control of our borders, ended gargantuan annual payments and escaped the EU’s political clutches.
But the Tory ‘ultras’ of the European Research Group refused to support it.
Her current position is the logical and inevitable consequence of their ideological intransigence. The Mail takes no pleasure in saying that we have warned them for months that this is the best deal they would ever get.
And now, because of their stubbornness, it is in danger of vanishing into the ether.
The zealots dubbed themselves the Spartans, after the ferocious Ancient Greek warriors who would rather die than surrender. In truth, they are pygmies who bottled the chance to seize their dream.
One thing could blow oxygen onto the embers of Mrs May’s pact: if the talks with Mr Corbyn fail (and he cynically prefers further chaos in the hope of provoking a general election).
Then her deal will return to the Commons for a run-off with other softer Brexit options – and winner takes all. The Tory hardliners would have an eleventh-hour chance to be pragmatists, and finally grasp the prize.